Category Archives: Kitchen Appliances

The Right Kitchen for You

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Design Center 009Tell me about the right kitchen for you. Will it be contemporary and dramatic like the one above? Are you drawn to this dark cabinetry and crisp light granite? Would you enjoy pendant lights over your island similar to the ones in the photo above or would you rather have the shaded lights in the photo below?

When you walk into the Fulton Design Center, check out the kitchen vignettes including the originals of these photos. But don’t just look. Pop open drawers and cabinets, turn knobs on appliances, walk around the islands and look up at the lights. Fulton’s vignettes are designed to give you a good idea of the features and style you want in your own home.

Design Center 016From a functional standpoint, would you like bookshelves built into your island to hold favorite cookbooks? Or maybe you prefer the opportunity to provide kitchen seating for quick breakfasts or as a place for the kids to do homework nearby while you fix dinner.

While you’re at it, take a look at how the different styles of granite work in each kitchen. With a Fulton Home, granite is standard so you don’t have to worry about budget issues to get this appealing stone look.

Would you like a stainless refrigerator or do you prefer a facing to match your cabinets? And speaking of cabinets, be sure to get the feel for your options for wood, finish and style. The Fulton Design Center offers a rich selection for your perfect kitchen, all with a focus on beauty and quality of construction.

Are you ready to create the right kitchen for you? Then visit us at the Fulton Design Center and let us help you make your kitchen dreams come true!

Design Center: Pot filler

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4 Pot Filler Design Center 016Would you appreciate never having to haul a heavy pot of water between your sink and range again? If you enjoy pastas, soups and stews, you may find that a pot filler reduces back strain, prep time and makes meal preparation that much easier.

Even your largest pasta pot will fit under this faucet. Its hinged design means that you can push it out of the way when you don’t need it and grab it easily when you do. Whether you use it to fill large pots or just add water to your saute pan to slow down the cooking, this pot filler will save steps.

By adding metallic tiles to the backsplash, this pot filler is well integrated into the kitchen’s design. The structure allows you to pour water as needed for any pot or pan on your stove.

Are you not sure how much you would use this? Try an experiment. Put a post-it note above your stove and jot a check for every time you fill a pot, pan or kettle with water from the sink before you bring it to your range. You may be surprised at how often you could save yourself the steps if you could access water right at your stove. Now, multiply that by 52 – and don’t forget to factor in holidays, parties and family gatherings which will only add to the sink-to-stove trips. And don’t forget that all those trips include hauling heavy pots filled with water around!

Well, is it worth it for you? A pot filler may be one of your smartest kitchen features!

Design Center: Using the Kitchen Vignettes

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Design Center 016What do you like about this kitchen vignette from the Fulton Design Center? Let’s take a look at just some of the decisions this vignette can help you with when planning your own kitchen.

Stainless or cabinet doors on some appliances? Would you rather have your refrigerator with doors that match your cabinets like this one, or do you want the pop of stainless? You have a good opportunity to see this look, and can check out other vignettes that have stainless refrigerator doors. Also, this is a built-in refrigerator. Open the doors and see if the space would work for your family. Do you like this look better than a stand-alone?

Matching or contrasting island cabinetry? This island shows the same cabinet style – a good design decision – while demonstrating a darker warmer tone for the stain. Are you drawn to this look or would you rather have an island that matches the rest of your kitchen’s cabinets? Even if these aren’t the cabinets you would choose, you can get a good sense of the approach by walking through this kitchen.

Lower drawers or doors or both? More home cooks today have discovered the joy of large lower cabinet drawers. These can hold pots and pans, table linens, and other kitchen staples without the cook bending over and digging through a cabinet to find something.

Cabinet design characteristics: Do you want this staggered profile for the tops of your cabinets or an even approach? Would you prefer more or less crown molding – or maybe no crown molding?

Whatever decisions you need to make for your kitchen, the Fulton Design Center vignettes can help you when designing your own Fulton Home kitchen. So open doors and drawers, walk around and through, turn knobs and faucets and get a feel for what each vignette offers. This experience will help you make educated choices for yourself and your home.

Design Center: Appliances

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Fulton Design Center kitchen vignette

Fulton Design Center kitchen vignette

Dream of a Viking gas range like the one in the above photo? While you’re looking, check out the Viking 30: Built In Warming Drawer, 24″ Undercounter Beverage Center, 24″ Undercounter Dual Zone Wine Cellar. Viking also has refrigerators and microwaves, not to mention range hoods, dishwashers and this gorgeous range in 15 other colors. Viking can help you create an outstanding kitchen.

Screen Shot 2014-07-07 at 12.29.33 PMOr perhaps the Bertazzoni Heritage Series 36″ Gas Range Package in Burgundy cream or black, like the one on the left, seems like the ideal focal point for your new kitchen. You might also consider the Bertazzoni gas cooktop. Both Viking and Bertazzoni have generations of history for quality and functionality designed for the avid in-home chef.

Have you been thinking along the lines of a set of kitchen appliances that have the value-added capability of GE? Then take a look at our gas and electric appliance packages featuring GE, GE Profile, and GE Monogram.

Screen Shot 2014-07-07 at 12.29.47 PMAvailable in stainless or black, GE appliances have a history ofstyle and quality in ranges, cooktops, ovens, hoods, refrigerators and more.

How about adding in a double wall oven? Holidays and baking eases when you have two ovens to work with in your planning.

GE makes both electric and gas models for their kitchen appliances that use gas. Notice the easy-clean approach of this cooktop’s design. These appliances have been designed to make your life easier in the kitchen.

Visit the Fulton Design Center on one of our browse nights – every first and third Thursday evening of every month – to see the broad selection of appliances and appliance packages available for your new, ideal Fulton Home kitchen.

Fulton Home’s Super Browse Night & Bertazzoni: Italian Passion and Precision

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Bertazzoni factory This Thursday night May 16, join us for the Fulton Homes’ Super Browse night, with two great sponsors: Bertazzoni appliances and Poco Verde Landscape.

Spend the evening at the Fulton Homes’ Design Center, explore all of the incredible home options available, and enter for a chance at an iPad Mini.

Thursday offers a great opportunity to learn more about Bertazzoni, combining a passion for cooking at its best with a strong focus on engineering excellence. The family-owned and run business started in the late 19th century and has grown steadily due to their well-designed and crafted equipment made for the serious home cook.

Paolo-Elizabetta BertazzoniPaolo Bertazzoni and his sister Elizabetta are the newest generation to take responsibility for carrying on the family tradition. Under their lead, top Milan designers were brought in to polish the look of their appliances to the height of Italian elegance and finesse.

KBIS-Best-in-ShowWith a worldwide market, Bertazzoni brought its line of kitchen appliances to the United States in 2005, and Fulton Homes is proud to include them as valued options for your kitchen.

Take the time during our Super Browse Night on Thursday from 5:00-8:00 p.m. to learn more about Bertazzoni’s exceptional line of kitchen appliances such as the award-winning segmented cooktop shown on the right. We’d like to thank Bertazzoni for sponsoring Super Browse Night this Thursday and providing the images in this post.

Dark Cabinets Enrich Kitchen Design

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You have many decisions to make when designing your kitchen and one of the most important is selecting the right cabinet finishes. If you want a kitchen that feels luxurious, consider dark cabinets. The rich tones make the space inviting and the contrast with other features provides a high style look.

This kitchen blends modern choices such as the simple cabinet fronts and the stainless pulls with more traditional features such as the crown molding and the tile medallion displayed over the range. The glass fronts on several of the upper cabinets allow you to bring some color and contrast in those areas depending upon what you place on the shelves.

When you choose dark cabinets, it’s smart to look for contrast with the other options. This floor is a mid-tone light brown porcelain tile with the look of stone. It provides a beautiful and low-maintenance choice for flooring in a kitchen, and also helps the cabinets stand out.

The countertops are white marble with grey veining. This provides the greatest contrast with the cabinets, creating a pop of brightness. The backsplash is a tile mosaic that combines light, dark and mid-tones, pulling all of the elements of this kitchen together. Once again the look is contemporary without being overly modern.

Wrap this kitchen up with stainless appliances, but notice that the refrigerator matches the cabinets rather than carrying through the metallic look. This option has become more common as people realize that the large expanse of metal can be a distraction in a kitchen space. It also eliminates the constant need to wipe fingerprints off the most used door in the kitchen.

If you have a flair for the dramatic and want your kitchen to reflect that, consider dark cabinets as your design starting point.

Silver Hues in the Kitchen

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Silver is the choice for metal surfaces in the kitchen. Cool silvery hues like stainless steel, chrome, and nickel continue to be popular finishes for ranges, hoods, sinks, faucets and hardware in the kitchen. The influence of commercial kitchens with their stainless steel surfaces can be the source for this popular metal in today’s residential kitchens.

 

Stainless steel appliances set the tone for all other metals in the kitchen. When your largest appliances like the fridge or stove are stainless steel, they demand that other metals in the kitchen coordinate with them.  Of course you could add other metallic finishes to the room like oiled bronze or brass, but using silvery finishes with stainless steel gives the room a more unified appearance.

 

Silvery chrome and nickel work well with stainless appliances and sinks.  Chrome and nickel come in a number of finishes including satin and polished.  The more shiny the finish, the more the metals will stand out and sparkle in the space.

 

Silvery metals also work with any number of cabinet and floor choices. Dark wood cabinets and floors get a pop of sparkle with silvery chrome or nickel pulls.  The silvery pulls are like sparkling jewelry against the wood, like a sparkling bangle or necklace is against a little black dress.

 

These metals also look great with glass front cabinets and marble counters veined with grey.  Using silver against grey and white is a sophisticated look for the kitchen. It is also a great look for a bathroom.

Bringing Color into the Kitchen

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For kitchen design the reigning option for cabinets has been white or wood for years. We are starting to see more colored cabinets showing up in contemporary kitchens and even traditional kitchens. For contemporary kitchens with just upper cabinets we’ve seen the lower cabinets painted or finished in soft to bold colors.  If you are redoing your kitchen cabinets, you may want to look into adding color to your cabinets. If you are not doing a major kitchen remodel this year or in the foreseeable future you there are other ways to bring color into the kitchen.

 

Maybe you are tired of your existing kitchen cabinet color. You could consider painting them a soft yellow or navy to update your kitchen without doing a major remodel. Upper cabinets could be done in white and the lower cabinets in a soft shade of color that works with your counter tops and flooring.

 

If you love your kitchen cabinets, add color to the kitchen with accessories and counter top appliances. Depending on the style of your kitchen you might want to have one or several colors as your accent colors. You can carry the wall color onto towels and runners, or choose a color that contrasts to your walls and floors.

 

Counter top appliances are another way to add pops of color to the room. Most counter top appliances come in a range of colors these days as well as the standards of stainless, black and white. Even a tea kettle is a place to bring color into the kitchen.

Hidden Kitchen Appliances

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Sleek high end appliances are not always easily recognized in the kitchen. Some are chameleons that blend in almost seamlessly with the surround cabinetry. Others like ranges and wall ovens stand out in the room as focal points.

 

In this kitchen the beautiful pale wood on the cabinetry is carried onto the back of the island and probably the floor, wrapping the room in warm wood tones. The grey counter tops and chrome handles coordinate with the stainless steel range and hood on the island as well as the oven and microwave on the back wall.  The fridge is another story.

 

Counter depth refrigerators are designed to create a more uniform sight line in the kitchen. No bulky fridge sticking out beyond the counter in this kitchen. In fact the refrigerator is cleverly disguised as a tall cabinet, blending in with the other cabinets. The seamless look between the fridge and the cabinets could not be achieved with a standard depth refrigerator. Counter depth is key to achieving this look.

 

Not every fridge can be mounted with the same wood facing as your cabinetry. Some brands are especially designed to accommodate this type of front. Matching the wood of the fridge door to the cabinets creates a seamless look that highlights the wood of the cabinets rather than the fridge. This gives the kitchen the ultimate in cohesive design.  Cabinet fronted refrigerators can be used in most kitchen styles from traditional to contemporary to blend the fridge into the space.